CCAAC 2016 federal budget submission excerpts
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) welcomes this opportunity to share our 2016 federal budget priorities with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, and with Canadians.
In order to fulfill election promises, we call on the federal government to prioritize child care infrastructure investments in Budget 2016 to deliver affordable, high-quality, flexible, and fully inclusive child care for Canadian families.
In the short term (Budget 2016), two dedicated streams of federal public investment are required:
1. $100 million in annual funding to begin to empower and resource Indigenous communities to design, deliver and govern services that meet their needs and aspirations, consistent with related recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and;
2. $500 million in federal transfers to provinces and territories. The resulting provincial and territorial child care initiatives must reflect research, evidence-based policy, and best practices in service delivery as set out in the government’s election platform.
In future years, in order to meet the federal government’s platform commitments, federal transfers will need to increase for provinces and territories that commit to system-building based on a comprehensive and collaboratively-developed ECEC1 policy framework that emphasizes the principles of universality and high quality.
All federal transfers should incorporate public performance reporting requirements such as establishing goals, targets and timelines. Federal transfers should include data and public reporting that ensures transparency, accountability and effective use of public funds.
Our distinction between federal funding in the short term and increased funding over time reflects the need for federal, provincial and territorial governments to work together and with stakeholders and communities to:
• Take prompt, evidence-based steps to begin to address urgent child care priorities across the country such as affordability, developing the child care workforce, and meeting the needs of harder-to-serve populations.
• Simultaneously, collaborate in the development and implementation of a robust, evidence-based shared policy framework, which will guide increasing public investments over time.
Within the next decade, our goal is to support Canadian governments to achieve a Canada-wide ECEC system that provides affordable access to a high quality space for every child whose parents choose this option. To begin that process, we developed and distributed the attached Shared Framework for Building an Early Childhood Education and Care System for All across governments and communities.
In the following sections of this submission, we highlight three key reasons for prioritizing child care funding in the 2016 Federal Budget: action on child care is broadly supported, urgently needed and well-aligned with the federal government’s social and economic objectives. We also elaborate on how our Shared Framework can support effective investment of public funds.